The Supreme Court Takes On Transgender Care for Minors
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What is the Supreme Court case about transgender care for minors?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, in history-making arguments on Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard a major case on the rights of transgender children that could help uphold or dismantle dozens of laws across the country. My colleague Adam Liptak listened in and explains how it played out and how the justices are likely to rule. It's Thursday, December 5th. Adam. Welcome back to the show.
It's good to be here.
Adam, this case that we're going to talk about today has that feeling of bigness that comes when the Supreme Court takes up a defining social issue of our time at the precise moment when that issue is completely front and center.
That's right. This is the biggest case of the term and would have been regardless. But it hits the court just as we're coming off a presidential campaign in which trans rights played a central role. So the Supreme Court confronts an important civil rights issue at just the moment in time when it's at the peak of public scrutiny.
Right. And not just the presidential campaign, but school boards across the country and sports leagues across the country. So tell us about this case and, Adam, how it fits into all of that.
What are the implications of the Tennessee law on transgender minors?
Well, this case, Michael, presents probably the most fraught question of all, gender transition care for people under 18. And the case concerns a Tennessee law that bars providing some kinds of medical care to transgender minors, to people under 18 years of age, in particular puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery. Twenty-three other states have similar laws. And the Tennessee law was challenged by three families and a doctor. The Biden administration intervened on the side of the families. And they say that the law violates the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.
And can you just explain that argument started by these families and, as you said, picked up by the Biden administration about why this is an equal protection 14th Amendment case?
So the Equal Protection Clause says that some kinds of discrimination are— are presumptively unlawful. And the classic examples are, of course, race or gender. And what the families and the Biden administration say here is that this law is an example of sex discrimination. It says that certain forms of care are available to everybody except minors who are seeking gender transition care.
How does the Equal Protection Clause apply in this case?
And you have to take account of the sex of the child involved to know whether they're entitled to get that kind of treatment or not. So think about it this way, Michael. If you have a child assigned male at birth experiencing precocious puberty, meaning he's going through puberty earlier than he wants to. He can get puberty-blocking drugs. If a transgender boy doesn't want to experience puberty because it doesn't align with his gender identity, he's not entitled to the very same treatment. So the challengers would say that example tells you that this Tennessee law is a form of sex discrimination.
So under the Tennessee law, the same medicines and procedures are available or not available depending on whether you are a transgender boy or girl or not. And therefore, the claim being made is it's discriminating against trans boys and trans girls. That's the claim under the 14th Amendment.
That's the challenger's argument. The state will come back and say, no, we're not drawing distinctions based on transgender status. We're drawing distinctions based on the medical procedure. These are different medical procedures, they would say. And the reason why this matters is that the Supreme Court has said that if it is sex discrimination, the law is subject to a very demanding form of judicial scrutiny. Lawyers call it heightened scrutiny. And what it means is that a state has to prove that it has a good reason for the law and that the restriction advances that reason. And that's a difficult hurdle to overcome. Got it.
And just to be very clear, because I think this might escape people's understanding, the government's legal argument here is not about whether this Tennessee law, and I guess laws like it, violate the rights of trans people as trans people, but instead about whether this law is a form of sex discrimination, which is different.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the Supreme Court case about transgender care for minors?
0:01–1:47
2
What are the implications of the Tennessee law on transgender minors?
1:47–3:14
3
How does the Equal Protection Clause apply in this case?
3:14–10:59
4
What arguments did the Solicitor General present?
10:59–14:09
5
What was Justice Kavanaugh's stance during the questioning?
14:09–18:00
6
What does the term 'immutable' mean in the context of transgender identity?
18:00
7
How may this ruling affect transgender participation in sports?
15:32–35:11
Speakers
12 identifiedMore from The Daily
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